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"The simple way to a leaner, stronger, greener lifestyle. "The greatest thing we can do in life is to be a beacon for positive change. Show how amazing we can be!"." - Jon Hinds, Founder Monkey Bar Gym

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Why does Bill Doe look the exact same bodyfat, the same strength? Why do people start, quit and then re-start training programs and diets? The question has haunted people for as long as i've known people to be into "getting in shape". They want "THE WAY", they start it, only to end up going back to their tried and true crappy way of fitness where they are forever weak and out of shape!
I do not have all the answers, been a trainer since age 16, so have 34 years of experience....what i've learned is that simple works, listening to your heart works....listening to wise people that have done what you want to do and finding your way to do it yourself works! So what is that?Training for strength & conditioning? Or training for balance? Or playing?Nutrition for looks? Or for performance? Or for health & happiness?
Many many options....so what is it?Answer this question....if the world was in total dis-array and you wanted to survive ... would you ca…

Recently Jess and I moved back to madison from chicago, goal was to simplify our life. Be Happier and Healthier!! Since coming back aside from working on the MBG business we've been getting back to regular training...but also getting more sleep!! Life here is simpler and we love it...that helps a TON! Because of a more simple lifestyle and getting more sleep all time PR's (personal records) are coming almost every week! It's funny what can happen when you eat plant strong, train the MBG way, do our Eischens Yoga a few times a week and REST!!:)
Just FYI new PR's are marked with a *, and ties with old records a t**.MBG Training with REST:)KB Cleans - all time record is 44s x 23, did only 1 when we moved back from chicago, 3 weeks ago did 44s x 18*!!!!...Last week i did 48's x 5*!!KB Clean Squat Press - had NEVER done 1 front squat with 44s!!....Til last week...did 44s x 1*KB front squat - 44's x 2!!*KB alt. back press - never got 48's before...last week did…

Our Winner of the 60 Day Fitness Challenge Todd Gray now doing
it all!! He lost 22lbs of fat and gained 7lbs of muscle over the 60
days! Now look at him! This was an awesome challenge, 4 people with over
30lb positive changes! Averaged a 22.5lb positive change over the 60
days!!!!
WHY did he get such great results? Simple....he
walked the MBG walk!! It works...we tested him to find out where he was
to start things off in bodyfat, physical tests, posturally,
nutritionally. THEN we put him on a plan to train, eat, restore that he
can manage not just for 60 days but for good! THIS is the key to make
all walk the walk for now and ever...to make a plan that is theirs!
It's as simple as this....5 steps to success!1) Test day - gotta know where you're at before you can chart a course to where you want to go.2) MAP it -
once you know where you are you need to chart your course. This is
where we help you layout a plan of action, class schedule from our
strength, stamina and…

This week was kicked off last saturday with a GREAT start to our MBG 60 day fitness challenge. We have about 47 folks signed up for it and all gave 110% last saturday! Beginning with our Mo-Sta (tm) challenge, then our MBG S&C test. These two gave them a baseline to start with...then this week we taught them the how to MBG across the board. LOVE the energy and what's been happening this week. Yesterday all members challengers or not worked technique then found out....what can i do on cleans, presses and deadlifts....did we max out load? No! We worked up to low weight, then without touching failure or breakdown in form we had them see how many reps can you do with 24s/16s (men/women) on clean and press? Some got up to 25! So then they went up one level and checked it again, and again and again....MAN the CONFIDENCE GAINED WAS AMAZING!!!! ALL walked out with a huge smile on their faces of self confidence and also the great feeling of helping others to break thru barriers as we…

Get Leaner, Stronger & increase Power & Stamina!How?...Do the Monkey Bar Gym 15/15 workout!! Here i demo how to do it
but with a variation for those that are high level!! Go for it my
friends! The gold standard is 100 reps with 24s for men and 16s for
women (thats sets of 5 all the way thru) once you have done that go
heavy as you like...watch and learn!! Hey my friends, it's been awhile and man ALOT has happened! Jess and i are back 100% in madison, we're back teaching some classes, re-connecting with members, MBG licensees and MBG folk all over the world....very exciting cool! Our training has been solid, we've been eating "Plant Strong as Hell" and doing our Eischens yoga and mobility drills regular too. ALOT of changes, growth, challenges. In the last month we have become FAR more focused and it is showing in all aspects. In the last month jess and i decided to attack instead of just go with the flow decided to do everything possible to reach and surpas…

Just the other day i was looking at some old blog posts, noticed one of my favorites...the 60/60 x 20 minutes....it's ten 60 second sets, with 60 seconds rest btwn each set. It's simple, get as many reps as possible in those 60 seconds, stop, go as you like just get amap reps each 60 second set. Well it was brutal my brothers:) haha! What did i notice? Well 3 years ago i was under less stress for sure:) and i'm guessing that over the last 3 years it took a bit (not much), but a bit of a bite into my overall strength and power.....Big thing is i'm coming back and closing in on the numbers i hit before:MBG 1 (training) 7.12.10 7.26.10 7.04.13
1. Mil Press 10 x 32k's *11 x 32k's 8 x 32k's (just a bit behind:)
2. Cleans 16 x 44k's *18 x 44k's 8 x 44k's (wow, surprise on this)…

Been a few weeks since last teaching and my energy is rising each week which is good:) Since coming back to madison about 3 weeks ago i've been getting more and more active. Listening to my body pretty good too:) days are pretty much like this:M, T, R, Sa workouts (bodyweight to silverback and jump training 2x week) all of which have been improving over the last 3 weeks.Monday - high rep bodyweight day...about 250-300 reps push/pull each. Tuesday jump training drills plus whatever else i feel like doing after...deadlifts, step back lunges for 5x5. Thursday is a low rep bodyweight day about half the reps or less of mondays, then Saturday is a simple meta workout like the "Wicked 50" i did this last saturday....25 dead clean squat presses with 32k's and 25 bar muscle ups as fast as possible...14:30 not bad, took it sort of easy as i was a bit tired before and during this one but just wanted to get it done and after felt good i did it!T, R, Sa biking, BJJ, biking
2 days…

Jon
Hinds: Adding Muscle on pullups & HS pressesBreaking down 2
simple & strong exercises that thru modification (the use of assistance from the pull up revolution AND a plyo box for box down dog push ups) can add greatly to
your training regime!! How? It allowed me to train in a higher rep range on my favorite exercises, to get an incredible pump, range as well as strength work! Why am i using assistance? Because sometimes i'm just simply tired:) (can you relate?:) Sometimes life just gets in the way, for Jessie and I this comes in the form of owning the MBG business and traveling and teaching the MBG CNT courses. Both though enjoyable can be very taxing on us physically. Stressful work can do this, as well as relationships, cities, smog, etc, etc. it happens..... So what do i do? I eat GREEN as heck!! Drink my Living Barley Greens and do some Eischens Yoga daily. For my training i ramp it down...reduce my power or speed training to strength based or simpler power trainin…

Cheating, Eating Green, Getting Lean...SO how do you do it?
It's been awhile:) been traveling quite a bit teaching courses, working on various projects....so what do i do to get back on track with my training? Do my best to recover first, sleep is #1 priority, nutrition .... #1 also hahaha.....got to get those two on par in order to start feeling good again. THEN start back at it with good instensity but really paying alot of attention to how i'm feeling. This is key, as the body is getting back into training after lots of training courses and travel it's a little run down. SO coming back at it when not 100%, you really need to pay attention to how you're feeling. LISTEN, keep it simple, generally i feel doing simple and strong strength workouts is best, doing more speed based or power types of movements tends to exhaust one more, then doing metabolic workouts that might just do you in. SO pay attention to how you're feeling, IF you feel okay train, but listen and…

FRIDAY:
box jumps: sets of 5x30", 36", 38", 40", 42", 44"(did 5 with 3lb d-balls in each hand on half)
10 minute x 15/15 of;
36k's swings x 6 and HLRs (feet to bar) x 6
total was 60 of each...did this workout 5 years ago and saw it and had to try it again...liked it alot!
improved too:) so feeling good!

How do you assist Free Handstand push ups by yourself? Watch and try!!
You know when you say i'm gonna have a fun day of eating...or a cheat day? Well jess and i thought lets do this on sunday...it was fun, did not feel like cheating cause we felt good about it (important!) and nothing was really that bad....some multigrain pancakes, then we split a danish roll, a cookie and then a cupcake...or two:). Now although it was all still vegan, that really does not make a difference as all of the above was alot of processed foods, sat oils and tons of sugar!...the result come monday mornings workout....crap!:) Whew it was rough, neither of us slept well and the effect continued most of the day with lethargic training and generally a dull mood all day...lesson: If you're gonna have a cheat/fun meal or day do it with an off day of training afterwards. For example i usually train m-f... so saturday fun meal or day would of been a wiser choice so it does not interfere with your upcoming …

MY MBG 3 Training, Re-balancing, Nutrition - this week i went to the shell...old place i use to ball at and actually used a barbell for my training and it was fun as it's been a long time:)Training: Silverback 1,2 workout - 5 rounds from SB exercise #1 x 5 to #2 x 5, then rest, repeat DCSP x 32s x 5 (this is getting easier now and actually did 3 reps in a row at 36s)Bar muscle ups: x 5s (working my technique alot now and they are looking better each week!)my goal for this is to move as quickly thru the exercise as possible, then with as little rest go right to the 2nd exercise...in this case the bar muscle ups. My previous PR was 51 seconds last week. This week i did then both in 43 seconds!! This is great as i'm adapting and finishing really fast!then moved on to 4x8 for:push ups + 80lbs on my back with strict formpull ups (4 x 10) with strict formthen moved on to 3x5s for:back dome spins: love this exercise, a few years back i could not even do back dome:)feet to bar HLR'…

LOVE SIMPLE AND STRONG....that is today!Todays Training: Prison 10-1: IF i broke up a set it reads like: 5,3 e.g. for my set of 8. This occurred if i felt i was losing form...i wanted clean strict reps only
Bar Muscle ups x 5,3,2/4,3,2/4,4/4,3/4,2/5/4/3/2/1 = 55 total reps, 17 total sets
44k's back press x 7,3/6,3/5,3/4,3/4,2/5/4/3/2/1 = 55 total reps, 15 total sets
then did some back dome crawl and some HLR's
AWESOME workout!!

So what and how do you train to be a Silverback?
I'm back! The following is my training, balance work and plant based nutrition...ALL towards the Monkey Bar Gymnasium Silverback Requirements!

I'm BACK!!:) Over the last few weeks i've been very busy and have pretty much just been doing the quick facebook posts...which seems like people like:) So i'll continue that....BUT I'm going to get back to simply posting how my life is going, my travels, my training, how my eischens yoga practice is going and how my plant based nutrition is going too:)So here we go:)My Silverback Eischens Yoga & balance training - Been doing alot of work to improve my backdome, flagpoles and more....and it's paid off well. Coming from a place where holding back dome was impossible years ago to now back dome walking 22 yards last week is a HUGE improvement! Since i've improved on that i thought i'm gonna try the capoeira movement that looks like you squat, go to 1 arm back dome…

This is a statement that you can rarely say (especially considering my background of training and being a strength coach for over 30 years)....needless to say....today this one single Power Wheel set set a new bar!!!! I felt my core working and burning like never before!!! The combination of the various types of Power Wheel exercises without pause crushed us (jeremy, sam, matt and i)!!!! SO What is it?
Put the Power Wheel on your feet...get into incline plane...then do 10 PW knees to elbows....then PW crawl 10 yards...then drop to your knees and grab a 2nd power wheel (have it ready!) and immediately do 10 power wheel rollouts to your chest....then set that one down and PW crawl backwards 10 yards and repeat til you have power wheel crawled 60 yards and done 60 reps....do not pause, do not rest, do it in one set!!! IF...and i say a big IF you can do this you're high level MBG!!That's Silverback Baby!!! Speaking of which...
So how do you Earn It? That you gotta stay tuned fo…

My cat Boobie again making us smile:) He's an awesome little cat! This cant help but bring a smile to your face:)

Todays blog is simple...it's a general layout of my training, eating / drinking, balancing for the week!
MBG Training - Monday / Wednesday / Friday -
usually drilling various climbing and crawling drills in alternating fashion and in progressively harder fashion as well...we call it doing 'work UP' sets....do this for about 5-8 sets!!!! SOUL TRAINING!!!!!handstand press ups (going down to touching chin to floor): 5 x 5 Been improving on this and feel real good about getting a press off parallettes soon! Do work up sets with the BXT and or the stall bars and it's working great!muscle ups: 5 x 5 either do kip muscle ups or work technique with various jump muscle ups OR we like to do kb weighted pullups OR soul training pullups....usually one of them each one day a week minimum....UNLESS we're doing J Rock which case we get a few in! J Rock still is m…

It's the new year of 2013, it is time to step up to the plate, live your best, look yourself in the mirror and make change to be great! Not good, but great!! What does that involve? That is up to you to decide....TRULY look at yourself, your life, your health, be honest with what you want to BE in life!
My life, my goals are to be my best, to be true...as Bruce Lee said the hardest thing in life is to be a true human being! To be a great teacher and to help as many people as possible all over the world! To be this it is important to me to be as strong an example of what training, restoring and eating in the most healthy and happy manner possible! I love the way we train....daily MBG Chi trainers and myself meet and train for high skill levels, we help each other, challenge each other and give feedback to each other constantly....I LOVE IT! It's a blast to train this way....constantly improving hand balancing, bar skills, jump skills.Love the restoration and balance we do....w…